◎Le Corbusier (1887 - 1965) Originally born in Switzerland Le Corbusier had become one of the greatest twentieth-century architects. Much of his work was in Paris where he moved his office. His creations are not limited to architecture, but also include painting, sculpture and furniture design, with a wide range of buildings from small houses to the proposal for the United Nations headqua�ers. Le Corbusier pursued his polemics in design ideas and concepts with rational and functional clarity delineated though his works which include paintings, architecture, urbanism and so fo�h. Consequently Le Corbusier’s accumulated works as a whole a�est to his compelling influence and profound contribution to the development of the twentieth century modern architecture and urbanism. He advocated the “Five Points of a New Architecture” (pilotis, roof gardens, open floor plans, horizontal windows, and free façade design), and he is considered one of the pioneers of modern architecture.

　

◎Main Building A�er World War II, the French government returned the Matsukata collection, seized as enemy prope�y, to the Japanese people. Le Corbusier’s Main Building was completed in 1959 as the home for the new NMWA to house the Matsukata Collection and to commemorate the resumption of diplomatic and friendly relations between Japan and France. In December 2007, the Japanese government designated this historical structure as an Impo�ant Cultural Prope�y (Architecture).The 40th meeting of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Commi�ee held in July 2016 decided to add “The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier, an Outstanding Contribution ot the Modern Movement”, including the NMWA Main Building, to the World Heritage Sites Register.

Number of Stories: 3 floors above ground, 1 basement floor Building Structure: Reinforced concrete (RC) constructionDesign By: Le CorbusierAssisted and Supervised By: Junzo Sakakura, Kunio Mayekawa and Takamasa YoshizakaMinistry of Education (now the Ministry of Education, Culture, Spo�s, Science and Technology):Operations Division, Education Facilities Section,Depa�ment of Finance and EquipmentGround Breaking: March 1958Completion: March 1959

Museums contain something just as impo�ant as paintings and sculpture: architecture. 　The architect Le Corbusier, who was based in France, came up with the idea of a “Museum of Unlimited Growth” — a museum building that could be expanded as its collection grew. The main building was completed in 1959 and brings many of his ideas to life. To create the main building, Le Corbusier utilized the “Modulor” — a system of measurements based on the size of the human body — and various other concepts that were suited to the architecture of a new era.　This “Discover Architecture Map” describes 14 checkpoints where you can see these concepts in action. Use this map to explore every nook and cranny of Le Corbusier's museum.

■ The Museum of Unlimited Growth

■ Le Modulor

Le Corbusier envisioned a “museum of unlimited growth” — a building that could be expanded with the addition of external exhibition rooms as museum’s collection grew, like a snail shell that spirals out from the center. The principles behind the museum with unlimited expandability (in green text) and the pa�iculars regarding how they have been applied to the National Museum of Western A� are described below.

Le Corbusier created this architectural measurement and propo�ions system by combining the traditional golden section and various human body measurements. Hence Le Modulor became the rules with which Le Corbusier determined architectural dimensions. For example, he set the ideal height for roofs based on a person (183 cm tall European man) stretching their hand upwards (226 cm). Using this method, the Modulor, he set dimensions for buildings, rooms and even furniture.

Keywords for Understanding the Architecture of Le Corbusier

DISCOVER ARCHITECTURE

MAP

KEY

©2016 The National Museum of Western A�, Tokyo

1. PilotisThe main building features a space suppo�ed by pilotis, or columns. See No. 12 on the map. 2. Central HallsThe Nineteenth Century Hall in the center of the main building serves as its the sta�ing point. See Nos. 1, 2 and 3 on the map. 3. Quadrangular Spiral SpacesSta�ing from the Nineteenth Century Hall, visitors can walk through the exhibition rooms following a route that spirals around the periphery of the square hall. See No. 5 on the map. 4. MezzaninesFrom the exhibition room on the second floor, one can see a mezzanine and clerestory galleries spiraling outward. See No. 4 on the map. 5. Standardized Column Spacing and HeightLe Corbusier proposed 7 m and 4.5 m for column spacing and height respectively. Using the Modulor principle, the main building uses values of 6.35 m and 2.96 m. 6. Spaces with Open Sightlines By creating spaces out of small exhibition rooms connected without obstructions, it is easy to give the entire space open sightlines. See No. 5 on the map. 7. StandardizationBuildings can be built more economically by standardizing the dimensions of building materials and structures. 8. Diverse Combinations for Accommodating A� Gallery OperationsThe a� gallery was designed from the sta� to incorporate temporary walls of various sizes as well as mezzanines and other space configurations so that various kinds of exhibits could be offered.

The UNESCO World Heritage Site Commi�ee has decided to add “The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier, an Outstanding Contribution to the Modern Movement,” including the NMWA Main Building, to the World Heritage Sites Register.

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1. Top LightingThis no�h-facing triangular window is set into the ceiling of the Nineteenth Century Hall. On a clear day, sunlight fills the hall with natural light.

2. Floor LightingIn the floor of the Nineteenth Century Hall, floormounted lights were installed to light the works from below. They are cur-rently not in use.

3. RampRamps are o�en included in the designs of Le Corbusier, and this one joins the Nineteenth Century Hall to the second floor. Unlike stairs, the ramp becomes the device for his Promenade Architecture to allow visitors to enjoy a slower transition between spaces.

4. Mezzanine Floor SpacesIn three locations in the second-floor exhibition room there are three sepa-rate mezzanine floor spaces. Going up through each of the narrow staircases, one finds a space for the display of smaller exhibits. These mezzanine spaces are currently not in use.

5. Architectural Promenades 　with Open SightlinesThe second-floor exhibition room fea-tures an intriguing design in which the view one sees a�er turning a corner is similar to the previous view. The walls have openings to provide open sightlines, and visitors move from one exhibition space to another without interruption as they walk through the gallery.

6. BalconiesIn the second-floor exhibition room there are two balconies overlooking the Nine-teenth Century Hall. From the balcony one can look down on the hall below and see the exhibition room behind the other bal-cony allowing one to feel the complex spa-tial composition of this building at a glance.

7. Varied Ceiling HeightsThe second-floor exhibition room fea-tures both high and low ceilings allowing one to appreciate the transition between open and compressed spaces. The height of the lower ceiling is 226 cm as determined by the Modulor system, and the higher ceiling is twice that height plus the thickness of the balcony floor.

8. Free Standing Columns　This building is suppo�ed by many col-umns. The columns are 60 cm thick on the first floor and 55 cm on the second to meet the Japanese standards although they were originally 53 cm and 43 cm re-spectively. The first floor columns were made thicker to bear more structural loads. The beautiful woodgrain pa�erns were imprinted on the su�aces by using forms made from Japanese white pine into which the concrete was poured.

9. DownspoutsMost buildings have their ve�ical down-spouts for rain water drainage on the out-side. However, in this building they are placed inside. Le Corbusier thought of many designs and places to include downspouts that are visible on the inside of the building.

10. Clerestory Gallery As Lighting DeviceThe glass walled corridor or clerestory gal-lery above the low ceiling po�ion in the second-floor exhibition room was de-signed to allow natural light from the roof to pass through into the exhibition room. Although Le Corbusier had planned to light the paintings with natural light as well, only a�ificial lighting is currently used.

11. Rhythmic LouversThin concrete mullion-like narrow ve�i-cal louvers or slats are found in such places like around the cashier area in the restaurant and outside the museum shop glass. The varying rhythmic ar-rangements transform the lighting con-ditions in the corresponding areas.

12. PilotisFound at the entrance to the Museum, the pilotis design allows the visitors to enjoy this space avoiding rain and strong sun-light. This space has been used to exhibit statues.

13. Column SpacingLe Corbusier used his Modulor system to determine the distances between the columns that suppo� the building.

14. Stone Pavement/ Exterior WallsThe forecou� pavement and exterior walls are underscored by the lengths and sizes based on the Modulor system.

Use the map in this areaUse the map in this area

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Le Corbusier’s Museum ofUnlimited Growth(Main Building)

14 Discovery Checkpoints　

The Nineteenth Century Hall

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